Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Five years ago, the New York City Department of Transportation signaled its interest in creating an extensive bike-share system
“to accommodate a wide range of potential short trips.” Now New Yorkers
have that system at their fingertips. With today’s launch of Citi Bike,
there’s a new travel option in the mix – 6,000 bikes at 330 stations
that will extend the reach of the transit system and expand access to
the point-to-point convenience of bicycling.“I am thrilled to declare that as of this moment, Citi Bike, the
largest bike-share network in the country, is officially launched,”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a press event outside City Hall
this morning. Touting a 75 percent reduction in the cycling injury rate
over the past decade and the improved safety outcomes for pedestrians
along the city’s protected bike lanes, Bloomberg said that “Citi Bike
will make our streets safer,” and reiterated the city’s commitment to
ramp up to a 10,000 bike/600 station system. The culmination of intense study, planning, and public outreach, the
bike-share launch marks the birth of a new transit network. Read on in Streetsblog.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Challenge: Only 1% of all daily trips in the
United States are made by bicycle, including fewer than 1% of trips to
school by children younger than age 16. However many more trips could be
made by bicycle, as 40% of trips made in the United States are shorter
than two miles. Make an impact: Recognizing this potential, many
government agencies and public health organizations are starting to
advocate for increasing bicycling as a way to improve people's health
and reduce air pollution, carbon emissions, congestion, noise, traffic
dangers, and other harmful effects of car use. Understanding the most
effective strategies cities can use to increase bicycling is important. What the findings are about: This brief summarizes
the available evidence about strategies for increasing bicycling levels,
including on-street bike lanes, off-street bike paths, and other
bicycling infrastructure and educational programs, and offers related
policy implications. You will find your copy here: "How to Increase Bicycling for Daily Travel". Authors: Jennifer
Dill, PhD, Portland State University; Susan L. Handy, PhD, University
of California, Davis; & John Pucher, PhD, Rutgers University.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Hyderabad Metropolitan Area which is witnessing a spurt
in privately owned vehicle numbers and subsequent rise in pollution is
in need of a Bicycle Master Plan. The Comprehensive
Transportation Study (CTS) taken up on behalf of Hyderabad Metropolitan
Development Authority to suggest solutions for transportation issues has
underscored the need to promote bicycling and make the city
‘bicycle-friendly’. Advocating a Bicycle Master Plan,
the CTS report called for a wide network of cycle routes and facilities
and making bicycle policy an integral part of transportation system
policies. The quality of urban environment has
deteriorated seriously owing to noise and air pollution and inadequate
road safety, the report compiled by LEA Associates says. Most pollutants
present at the street level originate from motor vehicles, it points
out while adding, “there is a definite need to make the city
bicycle-friendly”. The
Bicycle Master Plan has been proposed as a document with ‘long-range
planning for developing bicycle infrastructure in the city with emphasis
on designating and expanding bike routes, fostering a safe environment
for cycling and promoting bicycling as a viable transportation option’. Read on in The Hindu

Thousands of Greeks took to the streets of Athens and dozens of major
cities nationwide on Sunday in a colorful protest, different than the
ones against austerity staged often over the past three years. Riding
their bicycles throughout the central districts of cities, entire
families from toddlers to white-haired pensioners, participated in the
6th Panhellenic Bike March requesting measures to boost "sustainable
mobility." "We open a path to life" was the main slogan of the
events organized by cyclists groups, which included happenings on road
safety and music concerts. "Amidst the economic crisis, the state
should offer citizens alternative solution to the costly and
environmentally un-friendly car use," read banners and leaflets
distributed to passer-bys on Syntagma square in front of the parliament. "The
government must lower the prices of tickets for means of public
transport and offer people more and safe bike routes across cities,"
Yiota Panagopoulou, an activist who joined the group "Moms on the
Streets" told Xinhua. "Our aim is to persuade more and more
people to leave their cars at the garages and start riding bikes to go
to work or meet friends for fun," Stefanos Xenos, a political engineer
who has done so over the past two years, said. Source: Shanghai Daily

There is a hopeful prediction, kicking around in cycling circles as New
York City’s bike-share program nears its introduction to a skeptical
public: Soon enough, the thinking goes, the scheme will prove so popular
that New Yorkers will insist they invented it. Not quite. When Citi Bike is introduced in New York
on Monday, it will resemble a sort of cycling stew — bulky bikes to
match the behemoths of London, a pricing model that resembles
Washington’s and pliable station hardware borrowed from Montreal. And when Citi Bike personnel “rebalance” the supply of bikes by truck,
they will be emulating cities like Paris, where rental riders’ joy in
gliding downhill has not been matched by their determination in pedaling
back up. “What we’ve tried to do,” said Jon Orcutt, the policy director for New
York’s Transportation Department, “is take the best of each system.” The administration compiled a report
studying programs from five cities — Barcelona, Montreal, Paris,
Toulouse and Washington — weighing how characteristics of each might
translate in New York. To make the comparison complete, go to Velo Mondial's 'Pas-Port to Cycling' for the World Bike Share Map. Read on in the New York Times.